The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology

Compiled in response to emerging transnational perspectives in American Studies, this comprehensive and imaginative anthology brings together a rich variety of works of colonial literature from across the Americas, covering the period from first contact, through to settlement and the emergence of national identities, with an emphasis on the American Revolutionary period.

Book I, Chapter XL: Of the Island which Lay Before Them, and its
People.

Book III, Chapter LXXVIII: Of the Labours of the Indians in
Cuba.

Pero Vaz de Caminha (1467? - 1520? ):.

From The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha to King Manuel I, May 1,
1500.

Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485 - 1528):.

The Voyage of Verrazzano, Florentine Noble in the Service on
Francois I, King of France, 1524.

Alvar Nu?ez Cabeza de Vaca (1490? - 1556?):.

From Chapter 12: The Indians Bring us Food.

From Chapter 15: What Befell us Among the People on Malado.

From Chapter 22: The Coming of Other Sick to us the Next
Day.

Bernal DYaz del Castillo (1492 - 1584):.

From Chapter 37: Of How Do?a Marina Was a Great Lady and
Daughter of Great Lords, and Mistress over Towns and Vassals, and
How She Was Brought to Tabasco.

From Chapter 88: Of the Great and Solemn Montezuma's Great and
Solemn Reception of Cortes and of All of us on Our Entrance into
Mexico.

From Chapter 89: Of How Montezuma Came to Our Quarters with Many
Chieftains, and the Conversation He Had with Our Captain.

From Chapter 90: Of How Soon Thereafter Our Captain Went to See
The Great Montezuma, and of Certain Conversations They Had.

From Chapter 91: Of the Manner and Appearance on Montezuma.

From Chapter 93: Of How We Made Our Church and Altar in Our
Quarters, and a Cross Outside Our Quarters, and Other Events, and
of How We Found the Antechamber and Chamber where Montezuma's
Father's Treasure is Kept, and How it was Agreed that Montezuma
Should be Detained.

From Chapter 95: Montezuma's Arrest.

From Chapter 97: Of How When Montezuma Was Held Prisoner, Cortes
and All Our Soldiers Treated Him with Affection, and Even Allowed
Him to Go to His Temples.

From Chapter 107: Of Cortes and Montezuma.

From Chapter 150: The Siege of Mexico.

From Chapter 152: Of How the Indians Took Seventy-Two Live
Prisoners to be Sacrificed.

From Chapter 156: Guatemoc's Arrest.

Native Views on the Conquest on Mexico:.

The Omens Described By Mu?oz Camargo (1520):.

From the Story on the Conquest as Told by the Anonymous Authors
on Tlatelolco:.

The Arrival on Cortes (1519 - 21).

The Massacre in the Main Temple.

The Night of Sorrows.

The Spaniards Return.

The Tlateleolcas are Invited to Make a Treaty.

The Fighting is Renewed.

Epic Description of the Besieged City.

The Message from Cortes.

The City Falls.

The People Flee the City.

The Fall of Tenochtitlan.

Flowers and Songs of Sorrow.

Diego de Landa (1524? - 79):.

From Account on Things in Yucat?n:.

XV: Cruelties of the Spaniards toward the Indians.

XLI: Cycle of the Mayas. Their Writing.

LII: Conclusion.

Hans Staden (Fl.1550s):.

From The True History on His Captivity, 1557.

From Part I: The True History and Description of a Country on
Savages, a Naked and Terrible People, Eaters of Men's Flesh, Who
Dwell in the New World Called America . . . :.

Chapter I.

From Chapter XVIII.

Chapter XXII.

Chapter XXIII.

Chapter XXIV.

Chapter XXVII.

From Chapter XLII.

From Chapter XLIII.

From Part II: A True and Brief Account of All That I Learnt
Concerning the Trade and Manners on the Tuppin Inbas, whose Captive
I Was:.

Chapter XXIII: How They Turn the Women into Soothsayers.

Chapter XXV: Why One Enemy Eats Another.

Chapter XXVIII Of Their Manner on Killing and Eating Their
Enemies. Of the Instrument with which They Kill Them and the Rites
which Follow:.

From The Concluding Address.

Manuel da N?brega (1517 - 70):.

Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians.

Thomas Harriot (1560 - 1621):.

From A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of
Virginia: .

From The First Part on Merchantable Commodities.

Of the Nature and Maners of the People.

Samuel de Chaplain (1570? - 1635):.

From The Voyages of Samuel de Chaplain, 1604 - 1618:.

The Voyages of 1604 - 7.

Part II: New World Identities: Exploration and Settlement to
1700:.

Introduction.

New Spain:.

El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539 -1616):.

From The Florida on the Inca:.

The Inca's Dedication.

The Inca's Preface.

Felipe Huam?n Poma de Ayala (1525? -1615?):.

From Letter to A King (1613):.

Royal Administrators.

At Wayside Inns.

Spaniards.

Proprietors.

The Fathers.

Negroes.

The King's Questions.

Gaspar PUrez de Villagr? (1555 -1620):.

History of New Mexico, 1610:.

From Canto I: Which Sets Forth the Outline of the History and
the Location of Mexico, and the Reports Had of it in the Traditions
of the Indians, and of the True Origin and Descent of the
Mexicans.

Canto XXI: How Zutacap?n Called an Assembly of the Acoma Indians
and the Discord That was Among Them, and of the Treason They
Made.

From Canto XXXIII: How Zutancalpo was Found by His Four Sisters
and of the End and Death of Gicombo and Luzcoija.

Francisco N??ez De Pineda Y Bascu??n (1607 -1682):.

The Happy Captivity . . .

From Book I, Chapter IX: The Beginning of the Captivity.

Book III, Chapter XXXI: A Feast.

Carlos De Siguenza Y G?ngora. (1645 -1700):.

From The Misadventures of Alonso RamYrez:.

Chapter I: The Motives He Had for Leaving His Country. Work and
Travel through New Spain; His Presence in Mexico until Leaving for
the Philippines.

From Chapter II: His Departure from Acapulco for the
Philippines; The Route of this Voyage and How He Passed the Time
until Captured by the English.

From Chapter III: A Brief Summary of the Thievery and Cruelty of
These Pirates on Land and Sea Until Arriving in America.

Sor Juana InUs de la Cruz (1648 -1695):.

Number 48: In Reply to a Gentleman from Peru, Who Sent Her Clay
Vessels While Suggesting She Would Better be a Man.

Number 92: A Philosophical Satire.

Number 94: Which Reveals the Honorable Ancestry of a High-Born
Drunkard.

Number 145: She Attempts to Minimize the Praise Occasioned by a
Portrait of Herself Inscribed by Truth - Which She Calls Ardor.

Number 146: She Laments Her Fortune, She Hints of Her Aversion
to All Vice, and Justifies Her Diversion with the Muses.

Number 317 Villancico VI, From "Santa Catarina," 1691.

Number 367 Loa for the Auto Sacramental The Divine
Narcissus Through Allegories.

The Miraculous Apparition of the Beloved Virgin Mary, Our Lady
of Guadaloupe, at Tepeyacac, Near Mexico City (1649):.

History of the Miraculous Apparition.

A Nahuatl Song to Holy Mary.

Records of the Spanish Inquisition, New Mexico, 1664.

Excerpts from the Trial on Bernardo de Mendizabel, 1664.

Don Antonio de OtermYn (fl.1680).

Letter on the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

New France:.

Jerome Lalement (1593 -1673):.

The Earthquake.

Louis de Hennepin (1626 - After 1701):.

From Description of Louisiana, Recently Discovered Southwest
of New France, by Order of His Majesty (1683).

Letter to King Louis XIV.

From The Manners of the Indians:.

On the Fertility of the Indian Country.

Origins of the Indians.

Physical Condition of the Indians.

Marriages of the Indians.

The Obstacles to the Conversion of the Indians.

Indifference of the Indians.

Chretian Le Clercq (fl.1641 - 95):.

From New Relation on Gaspesia:.

The Sun Wept in Grief.

"I Am Astonished that the French Have so Little Wit".

The Chesapeake and Indies:.

John Smith (1580 - 1631):.

The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer
Isles.

"Description of New England".

Richard Ligon (c.1585 - 1662):.

A True and Exact History on the Islands on Barbadoes.

George Alsop (1636? - 73?):.

A Character of the Province on Maryland (1666).

John Lederer (1644 - After 1672):.

Instructions to Such as Shall March upon Discoveries into the
North American Continent (1672).

Nathaniel Bacon (1647 - 76):.

Manifesto Concerning the Present Troubles in
Virginia.

James Revel (After 1640s - ? ):.

The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon's Sorrowful Account of His
Fourteen Years of Transportation at Virginia in America.

New England:.

Thomas Morton (1579? - 1647?):.

From New English Canaan.

From Book I: Containing the Originall on the Natives, Their
Manners & Customes, with their Tractable Nature and Love
Towards the English:.

Chapter VII: Of their Child-Bearing, and Delivery, and What
Manner of Persons They Are.

Chapter. XVI: Of their Acknowledgement of the Creation, and
Immortality of the Soule.

Chapter XX: That the Salvages Live a Contented Life.

Book II: A Description of the Beauty of the Country:.

Chapter I. The General Survey of the Country.

Book III. Containing a Description of the People that are
Planted there, What Remarkable Accidents Have Happened there Since
they Were Setled, What Tenents they Hould, Together with the
Practise on their Church:.

Chapter. XIV: Of the Revells of New Canaan.

Chapter XVI: How the 9. Worthies Put Mine Host on Ma-re-Mount in
to the Inchaunted Castle at Plimmouth, and Terrified Him with the
Monster Briareus.

John Winthrop (1588 - 1649):.

From "A Modell of Christian Charity".

Winthrop's Journal: History of New England, 1630 -
1649.

William Bradford (1590 - 1657):.

From Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647.

From Book I, Chapter IX: Of their Voyage, and How they Passed
the Sea; and of their Safe Arrival at Cape Cod.

From Book I, Chapter X: Showing How they Sought Out a Place on
Habitation; and What Befell them Thereabout.

From Book II, Chapter XI: The Remainder of Anno 1620:.

The Mayflower Compact.

The Starving Time.

Indian Relations.

From Book II, Chapter XIV: Anno Domini 1623.

End on the "Common Course and Condition".

From Book II, Chapter XXVIII: Anno Domini 1637.

The Pequot War.

From Book II, Chapter XXXII: Anno Domini 1642.

A Horrible Case on Bestiality.

Roger Williams (1603? - 83):.

From a Key into the Language on America:.

To My Dear and Well-Beloved Friends and Countrymen.

Directions for the Use of the Language.

From Chapter I: Of Salutation.

From Chapter VIII: Of Discourse and Newes (Canonicus'
Speech).

From Chapter XI: Of Travel.

Letter: To the Town of Providence.

Thomas Shepard (1605 - 49):.

From The Autobiography of Thomas Shepard.

Anne Bradstreet (1612? - 72):.

The Prologue.

In Honour of Queen Elizabeth.

The Author to Her Book.

The Flesh and the Spirit.

To My Dear and Loving Husband.

In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who
Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old.

Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666.

To My Dear Children.

The New England Primer (1683?).

Benjamin Church (1639 - 1717):.

From Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War:.

The Great Swamp Fight.

Reunion with Awashonks.

Tactics of Indian Warfare.

Philip's Forces Routed Near Bridgewater.

Philip Killed.

The Capture of Annawon.

Philip's Regalia.

Edward Taylor (1642? - 1729):.

From Gods Determinations Touching His Elect; and the Elects
Combat in their Conversion, and Coming up to God in Christ,
Together with the Comfortable Effects Thereof:.

Mittark, Agreement of Gay Head Indians Not to Sell Land to the
English, 1681.

Garangula, Speech to New France's Governor La Barre, 1685.

The Coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt: A Hopi
Perspective.

Part III: The Eighteenth Century:.

Introduction.

Later Colonial Writers of the Americas:.

Sarah Kemble Knight (1666 - 1727):.

The Journal on Madame Knight.

Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan (1666 -
1715):.

New Voyages to North America . . .

Volume I:.

From Preface.

From Letter I: Description of the Passage from France to
Canada.

From Letter II: Description of the Plantations of Canada.

Volume II:.

A Discourse of the Habit, Houses, Complexion and Temperament of
the Savages of North America.

From A Short View of the Humors and Customs of the Savages.

From An Account of the Amours and Marriages on the Savages.

William Byrd II (1674 - 1744):.

From The Secret History on the Dividing Line.

From The History on the Dividing Line.

Pierre Fran?ois-Xavier de Charlevoix (1682 - 1761):.

From Journal of a Voyage to North America, Undertaken by the
Order of the French King . . .:.

Letter III: Description of Quebec; Character of its Inhabitants,
and the Manner of Living in the French Colony.

Letter XXX: Voyage from the Akansas to the Natchez. Description
of the Country. Of the River of the Yasous. Of the Customs, Manners
and Religion of the Natchez.

Letter XXXI: Description of the Capital of Louisiana.

Letter XXXII: Reflections on the Grants.

Marie-AndrUe Duplessis du Sainte-HUl?ne (1687 - 1760):.

From The Annals of Hotel-Dieu, QuUbec:.

The Image of Hell.

Elisabeth Begon (1696 - 1755):.

The Correspondence of Madame Begon, 1748 - 1753.

Richard Lewis (1700? - 1734):.

A Journey from Patapsko to Annapolis, April 4, 1730.

Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 58):.

From Images of Divine Things.

"Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont".

Personal Narrative.

Elizabeth Ashbridge (1713 - 55):.

From Some Account of the Fore Part of the Life of Elizabeth
Ashbridge.

Alonso Carri? De La Vandera (1715?-?):.

El Lazarillo: A Guide for Inexperienced Travellers between
Buenos Aires and Lima (C.1775):.

Prologue and Dedication to Those Treated Herein.

From Chapter XVIII: The Indolence of the Indians. The Opinion of
the Author. The Name Concolorcorvo.

From Chapter XXVI: A Brief Comparison of the Cities on Lima and
Cuzco. Characteristic Aspects. The Residents of Lima and Mexico.
The Dress of the Lima Women. Reasons for Their Vitality. Singular
Features, Wedding Beds, Cradles, and Household Furnishings.

John Woolman (1720 - 72):.

From The Journal of John Woolman.

Jean-Bernard Bossu (1720 - 92):.

Travels in the Interior of North America, 1751-1762:.

From Letter II.

From Letter XVII.

Louis Antione de Bougainville (1729 - 1811):.

From Adventure in the Wilderness: The American Journals of
Louis Antoine De Bougainville.

Susan Castillo is Head of English Literature and Reader at
Glasgow University. Her books include Notes from the Periphery:
Marginality in North American Literature and Culture (1995),
Engendering Identities (1996) and Native American Women
in Literature and Culture (1997, with Victor Da Rosa).

Ivy Schweitzer is Associate Professor of English at
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and teaches in the
Women's Studies, Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies
Programs. She is the author of The Work of Self-Representation:
Lyric Poetry in Colonial New England (1991).

"This is that rare thing, a landmark anthology. Susan Castillo and
Ivy Schweitxer reconstruct our view of early American writing and,
in the process, make a significant contribution to the rewriting of
American literary history. Shifting the critical paradigms as it
does, while providing a rich diversity of material, this will
undoubtedly be an indispensable resource for students of American
literature and history. It will also prove invaluable for anyone
wanting to know more about the Americas before the arrival of
Europeans, the conflicts and legacy of the colonial period, and the
founding of the American nation."Richard Gray, Professor of Literature at the University
of Essex, Editor of the Journal of American Studies, and a Fellow
of the British Academy and Editorial Adviser for the Blackwell
Anthologies.

"...our students should, like us, be grateful that such a
valuable resource is also so affordable." Journal of American
Studies 2002

"What [...] impresses me is the lightness of touch in the
editorial matter that almost belies the amount of synthesis of
scholarly materials involving such producing such informative and
eloquent introductions. The result is a genuinely accessible
compilation of some familiar, canonical texts and a fascinating
range of other literary documents." Journal of American Studies
2003

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